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THE 



LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 



SPEECHES 

OF THE 

Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT, 

AND 

JAMES MILLIKEN, Esq. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 

No. 606 CHESTNUT STREET. 

1863. 



4 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

the hearty cooperation of every loyal citizen of the 
country in sustaining and defending the govern- 
ment, in order that, throughout a fratricidal war, it 
might assert — as it had through many years of peace 
asserted — the principles of civil liberty. 

It was evident to all present that there was a 
necessity for unity of purpose and of action on the 
part of the whole people. All felt that we could 
no longer stand idly by, and permit the growth of 
unfruitful counsel and divided sentiment. We must 
act together, and act promptly. The want of encour- 
agement from the people, the 7?iasses at home, if you 
will permit the expression, had so disheartened the 
Administration, as to leave it somewhat paralyzed. 
The plan adopted was that of a League, an organi- 
zation having for its sole object the bringing together 
of those citizens who would pledge themselves to 
unqualified loyalty to the government of the United 
States, and unwavering support of its efforts for the 
suppression of the rebellion. The association could 
have no higher political aim ; and anything other than 
this, such as bringing into life a new political party, 
or of advocating or endorsing, inconsiderately or 
blindly, the theories of the old political parties, was 
entirely ignored. Those present at that meeting 
gave expression to the belief, that any effort to take 
advantage of the association, through which to use 
it for the aggrandizement of political parties, would 
result in its demoralization and final ruin; and it 



/ ry -f-f- 



THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 5 

was resolved that '■'■The League'^ should have but one 
object — that of the perpetuity of our government. 
Such was the formation of the parent League of the 
United States, and our action was but the sounding 
of a key-note. It was but the electric touch that 
made the great heart of the nation beat with hope 
and confidence. The purity of the principles then 
and there enunciated found a hearty response in the 
bosom of every patriot; and most happy am I to- 
night, to find that the reverberation of that voice 
finds a responding echo here in your beautiful 
mountain home. (Great applause.) As the brittle 
threads of the spinners' fiax, when twisted and 
securely held together, serve to make a cable which 
will hold in safety the mighty ships of the ocean, so 
also will the power and influence of each individual, 
when bound together in a league, serve to hold fast 
to its moorings the ship of State. (Applause.) 

Gentlemen of the League, you should not be 
unmindful of the fact, that those whose responsible 
duty it is to administer the affairs of the govern- 
ment in the present crisis, look to you to sustain 
them. They take courage and hope from what you 
have already said and done; and when you hesitate, 
or fail to discharge your full duty, may they, too, 
not have reason to hesitate, to become discouraged 
in their efforts for the preservation of our political 
system^ The might and power of this govern- 
ment rest with the people, and they have but to 



6 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

will to what extent it shall be exercised. Keep ever 
before you the great truth, that what the people 
would have this government be, that, with the aid 
of Providence, they can tnake it; but if they with- 
hold the expression of their opinions and their aid, 
it must, of necessity, drift into anarchy or des- 
potism. 

The soldiers that have gone forth to do battle in 
our most righteous cause, have a right to expect 
an encouraging word from those at home. They ask 
that they may be supported, and that the moral 
power of the whole people may be exerted on the 
side of the government; and nothing so cheers them 
on to duty, or so rewards them for their toils and 
privations, as the knowledge that the people are 
alive to the dangers that threaten that government, 
and in earnest in their efforts for its preservation. 
Imagine, if you can, the feelings of the soldier who 
has staked his life and his honor on the issue, when 
he turns his eyes homewards, and discovers a divided 
sentiment among the people, or an apathy as to the 
cause in which he has so largely embarked. Will 
that condition of affairs be likely to make him more 
brave, or to excite feelings of pride for his country 
and his countrymen'? Will such ingratitude not 
sting more keenly than the serpent's tooths Is 
there any one within the sound of my voice who, 
when that brave band of soldiers which so recently 
left vour village and neighborhood, return again, 



THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. T 

with all their honors heaped upon them, would dare 
meet them face to face, and say to them, "While 
you were absent, I did nothing"? or, that "I con- 
sorted and acted with the opposers of the war and 
of the government"'? No I there is not one that 
would dare do so; for in that hour of our country's 
greatness, in that hour of exultant pride at the 
heroic achievements of your sons, your brothers, and 
your neighbors, will come the full shame and dis- 
grace of those who now hesitate, and who now 
withhold the influence they so well could exercise. 
Then, too, will come the disgrace and shame of those 
in your midst who are now plotting treason under 
the cowardly disguise of perpetuating a political 
party. (Applause.) 

With those who oppose the government, and those 
who render reluctant aid to its measures, it has 
become a settled policy to argue upon certain specu- 
lative theories in reference to the causes of the 
rebellion. This is but a ruse to divert attention, to 
distract, and to divide. Our duty in this hour is 
to deal with the war, and not with the causes of 
the war. What would you think of the crew of 
a ship who should refuse aid to the captain when 
she was about to founder in a storm, because they 
had not agreed in their reckoning during their voy- 
age? Or what would you have thought a few nights 
ago, when an alarming fire was raging in your 
village, of the individual who had refused to aid in 



8 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

subduing the flames, because, forsooth, he had not 
been fully informed of, or did not quite understand, 
the causes of the fire; or because he had believed 
it to be the result of gross carelessness'? Why, such 
a man would have been driven out from among you 
as a disgrace to your society; and yet you have 
among you, as I am informed, those who act in 
that manner towards our government. You cannot 
certainly hold fellowship with such men, and I can, 
therefore, readily understand the additional aims and 
objects of this association. 

The duty of the citizen to his government grows 
and increases with the 'perils that environ it. " The 
pride of personal opinion is one of our stumbling 
blocks" — I quote from memory some recent writer — 
"but we should not be unmindful of the fact that 
each forms but one of the great family, and that the 
public safety and quiet demand of us that we should 
cheerfully concur in all measures looking to a res- 
toration of law and order, even where our private 
judgment may not approve. There cannot be good 
government without self-denial on the part of the 
citizen. It is through this that he has a right to 
claim protection of his government against encroach- 
ments upon his liberty ; but discontent will, in time, 
undermine the stability of the State, and lose to 
him all liberty and government." 

No good citizen will ever lose faith in our 
national institutions. As the dangers increase 



THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 9 

he will renew his courage. "As the storm grows 
dark his confidence in the light of the morning will 
revive. He will hope and labor on, through all dif- 
ficulties and trials, for the sake of his country. He 
will ever feel himself a sentinel on the watchtower 
of liberty, with a high and holy duty to perform. 
He will make of patriotism more than a sentiment; 
it will become with him a principle of action, of 
noble effort, and of constant hope and confidence." 
It will be to him his guiding star, his creed at his 
lying down, and at his rising up. 

Turning our attention for a moment from our 
individual duties, and desirous that we may more 
firmly feel the security of our position, we may 
now inquire what those who are decrying the efforts 
of our League organizations propose as a remedy for 
the dangers and perils that now beset our govern- 
ment. We hear from them a cry of peace, with their 
reasons therefor based only upon the calamities of 
war, which they picture so vividly in the abstract. 
But what have been to the people of the north the 
distresses from which they are said so much to 
suffer? Beyond that melancholy one of loss of life, 
and of friends dear to us as life — the responsibilities 
for which God knows, and we know, do not rest 
with our government or ourselves — I answer, none. 
Never was there a people in the enjoyment of such 
prosperity. It would seem, indeed, that a kind Pro- 
vidence held us in his special keeping. The land 



10 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

produces most abundantly, and the laborer meets 
with a full reward for his labor; the manufacturer 
and the merchant are content with their profits and 
their gains. But we are told that this prosperity is 
not real— that it is fictitious. So, I grant you it will 
be, if our government fail to maintain itself, or fail 
to assert its authority everywhere throughout the 
republic. 

The prosperity of the people is inseparably bound 
up with the present issue, and our commercial and 
financial condition must of necessity rise or fall with 
the success or failure of our cause. Fortunately 
for us, however, the people have decreed that the 
cause shall not fail. The assurance that goes up 
from this and from kindred associations has been 
accepted at home and abroad, as an earnest of what 
our future must be. The cry of peace, therefore, is 
prompted by no feelings of real concern for the wel- 
fare of the government or of the people. It has 
neither reason for its utterance nor argument for its 
basis. What plan have we submitted to us for a 
permanent peace, but a further prosecution of the 
war'? Are we to ask that our armies shall lay down 
their arms, and that our soldiers shall return to 
their homes'? And if so, what then'? How will 
that bring us peace'? Will the failure of our govern- 
ment, and the failure of the principle, that a repub- 
lican government can possess sufiicient inherent 
power to preserve itself when assailed by foes from 



THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 11 

within, bring with it peace? That principle having 
failed at our hands, does any sane man believe 
that we of the north could frame a government that 
would be permitted to work out its destiny in peace \ 
No! no!! no !!! The failure of our arms, and, there- 
by, the failure of our government, would be a failure 
of civil liberty throughout the world; and we, iis a 
people, permitting such an event to happen, would 
be lending our aid to turn civilization into barbarism. 
There is, therefore, a necessity that the war shall 
go on, for the sake of peace, for the sake of our in- 
stitutions, for the sake of humanity. It was not ours 
to begin, neither can it yet be ours to stop. AVe 
have a name and a fame to preserve, and principles 
to perpetuate. Who is there that could be induced 
to take down from its high position, where it now 
floats so proudly aloft, the American flag, and muti- 
late it, by erasing ten or more stars from its beautiful 
azure field? (Cries of "No one!") AVhen an Ame- 
rican citizen can be found capable of that act it will 
be time enough to whisper peace, without presenting 
to us a plan of peace. (Applause.) 

From the earliest history of our government up 
to the present hour, the politicians of the southern 
States have at all times resisted and opposed those 
principles of government which have looked to the 
material prosperity of the whole people, as the main 
bulwark of the nation. Their plans for the dis- 
solution of the Union were laid long since, and 



12 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

their jealousy of the growth of free labour has never 
been concealed. This last it was that gave them 
most concern. As their schemes were, from time 
to time, necessarily deferred, the statistics of each 
new census furnished them new cause for alarm and 
complaint. They watched the growth of the free 
North with serious apprehensions, until finally a 
great political contest decided that the executive 
power of the government should for a time be 
wielded by a direct representative of free labor. 
This was all that was done, and it was met by 
an open rebellion; and because of the assertion of 
this principle by a majority of the whole people, 
would you have the war to cease, and the principle 
to be abandoned? 

Gentlemen of the League, there can be no doubt 
of the ultimate success of our cause. I never had 
a doubt of it ; and viewing it, as we all must, in its 
moral aspect, I see much that is hopeful and encour- 
aging. It would be vain and unbecoming in me to 
attempt to penetrate or predict the designs of Pro- 
vidence; but who can now fail to perceive that this 
great calamity has been permitted for our good? 
Are we not daily realizing the conviction that the 
institution which has ever been a hinderance to our 
civilization and our progress, and which has been 
made " tlie chief corner-stone" of the rebel govern- 
ment, must be brought to ruin by the success of our 
cause? The statesman, the philanthropist, and the 



THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 13 

economist, both of the Old World and of the New, 
foreseeing the evil tendency of that institution, and 
alive to the fearful responsibility for its growth and 
for its continuance, sought in vain for some plan 
through which to remedy its present, and to avert its 
future, evil. They abandoned, without hope, every 
scheme proposed, and gave themselves over to feel- 
ings of deep concern for the hour when this conti- 
nent should witness a war of races — a war of an 
enslaved race against a free one. Books had already 
been written pointing out the calamities that must 
befal our posterity. Who shall longer doubt that 
the wisdom of an All-wise Providence is nearest to 
us when our scope of vision fails'? This war was 
not, as we have seen, instituted for the suppres- 
sion of slavery, nor is it now prosecuted for that 
purpose ; but I can readily believe that those who 
did inaugurate it for the purpose of perpetuating 
slavery, begin to see the handwriting upon the wall, 
which tells them that they and their institution have 
been weighed in the balance — that they and their 
institutions are politically doomed. 

It must be so. History teaches that the onward 
path of all great nations has been through seas of 
blood, and ours, it proves, will not be permitted to 
escape that terrible ordeal. As the blood of the 
martyrs has been the seed of the Church, so will 
the bones of our heroes be the foundation stones of 
a monument of freedom, everlasting as the hills. 



14 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

It is but a question of time as to when we shall 
have peace. But when we do have it, it must 
be a permanent one — a peace that all the world 
shall know is based upon the principle, that while 
in the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty — of 
freedom — man is capable of self-government. (Ap- 
plause.) 

But I cannot take my seat without a word more 
personal. You of this county have done much for 
the cause of your government. You have sent your 
full share of brave soldiers to the field, and have 
contributed most liberally from your means. You 
have given to the State our present patriotic and 
most praiseworthy Governor, (cheers), who has re- 
warded you by the honour he has won for himself, 
and the fame that he will leave behind him for this 
his birthplace and his home. As an humble citizen, 
I must thank you for all this good in the past, and 
for the cheering promise that this crowded room 
gives for the future. (Tremendous applause.) 



/r/f 



SPEECH BY MR. BANCROFT, 

At the New York Union Meeting, April 20, 1863. 



Hon. George Bancroft was first introduced, and 
spoke as follows: 

Two years ago the purposes and acts of the rebel- 
lion forced the faithful citizens of the United States 
to rise in arms, and prove that we are a people — that 
we possess a country. Every hour of the long and 
terrible conflict has raised it in importance; the eyes 
of the whole civilized world rest upon us ; the indus- 
trial classes of Europe bend toward us in sympathy 
and hope as to their champions; and the question is 
found to be, not merely whether the United States 
shall be stricken from the family of nations, but 
whether the vital principles of freedom shall be 
preserved. (Applause.) The imperative call of 
duty cheers us on to the struggle more than ever; 
for unless we succeed, the power of the people 
which pervades all history as a prophecy, is beaten 
down, and there is no other Western hemisphere 
where the struggle can be renewed. We have no 
choice; we must persevere. If we would build up 



16 THE LEAGUE FOE THE UyiOX. 

the home of humanity — if we would safely transmit 
the regenerating principles that give life its value — 
we must persevere. The result cannot be doubtful. 
The resources of the rebellion are nearly exhausted, 
while our own prosperity has hardly been impaired; 
we must press onward with united zeal, and -win 
the victory of endurance bom." (Cheers.) 

We meet to-day without reference to party, to 
pledge ourselves to one another for the vigorous 
prosecution of the war, until right shall triumph. 
But while we reserve to ourselves the utmost liberty 
of judgment, both of men and measures, it is but an 
act of simple justice and historic truth, to say that 
the rebeUion found not even a plausible excuse in 
the administration which last came into power. 
Xo sooner had the elections passed over, than those 
who succeeded made every effort to allay excite- 
ment. A party had been formed that seemed 
pledged to prohibit the introduction of slavery into 
the Territories, and yet the men of that party, after 
deliberations, not in an unauthorized and insignifi- 
cant peace congress, so-called, but in the constitu- 
tional halls of legislation, joined in organizing the 
Territories of the United States, without the restric- 
tion in the fundamental law of any one of them, 
leaving the event to the action of natural causes. 
A motion was even made and countenanced, by inti- 
mate friends of the incoming President, to bring a 
vast territory, under the name of New Mexico, into 



//t7 

THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 17 

the Union as an independent State, without any 
such restriction, and at a time when the municipal 
law of that Territory sustained slavery with an 
extravagant hyperbole of intolerance. Nor were the 
friends of the present President wanting in giving 
assurances that his administration would be as little 
marked by hostility to slavery as if the chair had 
been occupied by Madison or Henry Clay. More- 
over, the Geiierals of the President's appointment 
were loud in professing their readiness in the midst 
of war, to pause in their career and assist in sup- 
pressing any possible rising of slaves. 

But yet, under all these circumstances, so in- 
fatuated was slavery, that it still passionately pur- 
sued its purpose, and for the sake of founding a 
Confederacy on a basis on which no enduring 
government can rest, aimed a blow that was in- 
tended to be fatal to the country and to the liberty 
of man. The war was, under every aspect, forced 
upon the northern States; it was a war from which 
they could not escape. Had they proved cravens, 
they would have stood before the Powers of the 
earth of their own day, and before all succeeding 
generations, as men who betrayed their country, and 
were recreant to freedom itself. (Applause.) 

Our coming together on this occasion means, that 
no exertion shall be wanting to annihilate the rebel- 
lion by the united and untiring exertion of the 
wealth and strength of the nation. It means that 



18 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

those who are in arms a^inst our flag, shall not at 
the same time receive at our hands the belligerent 
rights of alien enemies and the constitutional rights 
of citizens. It means that -whoever may be at the 
head of our armies, the undivided sympathy of the 
country is to command unity in council and add 
vigour to every blow. (Applause.) It means that 
with one heart we entreat the President to disregard 
aU considerations of so-called party necessities; to 
adopt the measures but for the pubUc good; to turn 
a deaf ear to all selfish importunities of politicians 
of every party, and ever to remember that it would 
be a sin against the country, against his own happi- 
ness now, against his name with posterity, to lift an 
unfit man to office, in civil life or in the field. (Ap- 
plause.) It means that all the generous feeling of 
the country goes forth to cheer on the noble states- 
men of Missouri, who are now struggling to shake off 
the teiTible evil which alone holds that State back 
from one of the first places — perhaps from the ver}- 
first place in the Union — for agriculture, mining, 
mechanical industry-, for wealth and population. 
It means that our earnest sympathies embrace the 
freemen of the South, who, trained in the school of 
povertv. are now compelled by tyrannical power to 
fiffht for results that are in direct conflict with their 
own chances of happiness and advancement. It 
means that we are eager to go to the assistance of 
our friends in our mountain regions, and to give 



/// 

THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION". 19 

them security in the natural fastnesses of American 
freedom. 

Nor are we deterred from rendering a loyal sup- 
port to the government, by the thought that the war 
in its results will weaken slavery, or even work its 
overthrow. Civil war has always, in God's provi- 
dence, been a means for rescuing men from bondage. 
Who is there to deplore the probable result that 
States, where, in times past, labor has been despised, 
should come to own the true nobility of the working 
man, and restore the fields and the workshops to the 
free'? Take Virginia, for an example. Her soil is 
fertile, her air salubrious; her springs renovate 
health; her mountains glisten with precious ores. 
There, in her many chambers, where nature has 
heaped up stores of gold and silver, of gypsum and 
iron, of salt and copper, an evil spirit has cast over 
her its spell, and she sleeps in almost hopeless 
lethargy. Who will mourn if the time has come 
when her long and deep slumber shall be broken'? 
Who will grieve if the procession of the Star Span- 
gled Banner, borne onward to the songs of liberty, 
shall wake her from her trance of centuries? Then 
let her clothe her beautiful limbs in the robes of 
freedom, and open her hundred hills to the hands of 
self-directed enterprise and skill. (Applause.) The 
present bitterness will pass away, and the next 
generation of her sons will meet ours in affection, 
and they will own that from this desperate strife 



20 THE LEAGUE FOR THE UNION. 

has sprung the blessed regeneration of their lovely 
land. 

Nor is union required by our domestic affairs 
alone. There is reason to believe that here in New 
York, men, falsely usurping the name of democracy, 
have been willing to invite the interposition of the 
aristocracies of Europe. These men must be made 
to know that they stand alone. (Cheers and cries 
of "Good!") A nation which has always professed 
zeal for free trade, aims at a monopoly of the inter- 
national carrying trade for themselves, by sending 
out ships built in their own shipyards to prey upon 
our commerce. It is here in New York, more than 
in any place in our land, that the government should 
be able to count with certainty upon a unanimous 
support in its efforts to maintain, against any foreign 
power, the rights and the dignity and interests of 
the country. (Applause.) So then the love of the 
Constitution, the love of liberty, the love of country, 
a proper sense of overhanging dangers, a just appre- 
ciation of our resources, conspire to demand the 
patriotic union of the people as our security at 
home, and our only protection against wrongs from 
abroad. (Applause.) 



i6C 



